During my three month long stay in the warm and hospitable South this summer, I couldn’t help but become apprehensive about returning to Indiana University for my junior year of college. I knew my return would mean the pressure to find an internship and potential career would be high, and I would really have to buckle down academically and professionally.
Many students look at college as a window of opportunity; a four year buffer that grants young adults the adequate time and resources necessary to assist them in choosing which direction in life they want to take. But what if someone doesn’t want to wait four years to pursue their dreams? What if they want to start today?
That is what 23-year-old University of South Carolina alum Mike Meyers, and his brother, Evan, a junior at Virginia Tech, planned to do two years ago.
Last week I sat down with Mike, CEO and Founder of Tradeversity, a Columbia, South Carolina-based startup that makes buying and selling items in college easier and safer for students. Tradeversity is an exclusive local marketplace that is limited to students and was founded on the principles of safety, simplicity, and locality. Imagine a safer version of Craigslist that is mobile, exclusive to the university community, and is built around connecting students and giving them a way to make more and save more.
In business, everyone has great ideas, but everyone thinks their idea is the best.
The key is to do something different.
“Success is never found in the idea, it is found in the execution,” said Mike. The most formidable part about starting a business, he told me, is not knowing whether or not it will be successful. When I asked Mike how he started the whole process of creating Tradeversity, he exclaimed that “You can’t study how to be an entrepreneur, you just have to do it. An entrepreneur is someone who doesn’t see walls. It is someone who jumps out of a plane and builds a parachute on the way down.”
There is no code outlining what it takes to start your own business. There’s no ‘how to’ guide or class you can take telling you what to think or how to promote your visions.
Before embarking on his entrepreneurial quest, Mike sat down and conceptualized a business model canvas. He admitted that most people, when constructing business proposals, waste time and energy formulating their thoughts into pages and pages of unnecessary fluff. He claimed business models should be confined to one page, however, they should contain these nine key elements: value proposition, customer relationships, customer segments, channels, key partners, key resources, key activities, cost structure, and revenue stream.
Your idea should provide a solution to a preexisting problem. You should have a target consumer and a source of financial gratuity to fully put your idea to work.
So, how does one know if their brilliant idea is actually a plausible need in society? Validation. Mike mentioned that it is imperative for wannabe entrepreneurs to seek validation from potential customers. Are people actually going to use your product or service?
The next step may be the most challenging part of the entire corporate process: create something tangible. This is the part that most people don’t know how to do. It is the execution of the master plan. In life, when you are a novice in whatever you are pursuing, you must learn from the experts, those with experience.
“Business and life are all about people. You bet on the jockey, not on the horse. When companies fail, it ultimately comes down to the people,” said Mike. To get your company started on the right foot, it is important to network with advisers and seek out mentors who have been there and done that. For Mike, it took about nine months until his brother Evan actually closed their first deal with an investor on a golf course.
I asked Mike what his secret is. So many people have dreams and aspirations, but very few actually follow through with them.He said this:
“The number one ingredient for success is passion. You don’t know what you’re doing at first, but you must have the tenacity to figure it out. How hungry are you? Are you willing to work for it?”
Having a business degree won’t necessarily make you successful in business.
Many people misconstrue the definition of success by assuming it has to involve monetary gain, however, the only correct definition is your own. For Mike, he believes that to be successful, you must have every aspect of your life in balance. From your fitness and health, to maintaining relationships, to professional gains; he believes that while it is important to work hard, it is imperative that you still maintain a personal life. Working in business may require you to sacrifice things at times, but those sacrifices don’t have to be permanent.
The bottom line, Mike said, is that sometimes it is better to “live with next to nothing, knowing you are loving what you are doing.” Do something you love versus something that may be more lucrative.
"If you're only chasing money, you will never be happy. However, when you absolutely love what you do, then the money and other things will follow faster than you could ever imagine. However, the most important thing that comes when you do what you love is happiness. That is what life is all about."
“I am just like every other 23-year-old,” said Mike. He had a dream, and he’s fulfilling it. You can do the same.
